Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Finally, the most sophisticated and luent future design representations will
be “reactive blueprints.” These are designs that modify themselves to it the
conditions where they will be used. Like an eloquent orator improvising on a
podium in response to the crowd's mood and questions, a reactive computer
blueprint software is dynamic.
The latter is how nature works. A plant's DNA does not specify the plant's
inal shape explicitly. It speciies a set of rules that will govern how the plant
grows in response to any particular condition it may ind itself in.
Until the advent of 3D printers, complex ideas about representation of form
were fodder for fantasy, theoretical mathematics, and computer graphics. Only
nature had the manufacturing ability to physically make the complex forms
described by a generative blueprint. As 3D printing technology improves,
these new design concepts will inally be able to step out of the virtual and
into the physical world.
Design as recipes
A recipe may be an appropriate way of thinking about design software of the
future. A recipe for a cake does not describe the details of the shape and compo-
sition of the inal product. Instead, a recipe describes the process of making it
as a sequence of steps, essentially, as a procedure, a program that if executed
meticulously will result in the desired outcome.
A relatively simple recipe can result in a rather complex outcome. Sprinkle
sliced apples and raisins on puff pastry, roll it up and bake it, and you have
an apple strudel. The sequence of steps listed in the recipe are substantially
simpler than a narrative verbal description of the strudel's exact geometry,
appearance and material composition. Yet, the recipe creates an object much
more complex than its simplicity would suggest. In other words, the whole is
greater than the sum of its parts.
The equivalent approach to a strudel recipe in design software is a
paradigm called “geometric programming,” or “function representation.”
Geometric programming requires a different kind of thinking, a different
kind of imagination, and a different kind of designer. The resulting objects
are far more complex than what can be designed by a traditional point-and-
click design tool.
